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"Psychic Force" tricks are card tricks where you involve one or more volunteers and you "force" them to perform the trick for you. These tricks are sometimes easier to pull off because the audience is participating in the illusion.

In this trick, two volunteers receive "psychic messages" and help to sort the deck into red and black. Some moderate sleight of hand is required for this illusion, but nothing comparable to standard card forces.

Steps

1

Pull the four aces from a standard deck of cards.

2

Fully shuffle the deck (except for the aces) and split in half.

3

Place the four aces in a square, 2 x 2. Make sure that each row and each column has both a black and a red ace. For example: if the top row (left to right) is Ace of Spades, Ace of Diamonds, then the bottom row (left to right) would be Ace of Hearts, Ace of Clubs.

4

Stand facing your two volunteers. Using your "off" hand (ie, left hand if you're right-handed,) fan one half of the deck of cards so that you can see the face of the cards, while the volunteers see the backing. Leave the other half of the deck alone.

5

Instruct the volunteers that you will be "projecting" the color of the card into their minds. Tell them to tell you the first color that pops into their minds.

6

Start with the first volunteer. Select any black card from your fanned hand and hold it (facing you) in front of your forehead. Make a show of "projecting" the color by squinting, glaring, etc. When the volunteer says either "Red" or "Black", lay the card face down on the corresponding ace in the top row. Place the face down card horizontally, so that the ace and the face down pile make a cross. Continue "showing" black cards to the first volunteer in this manner until you have run out and are holding only red cards in your fan.

7

When you have run out of black cards, say something similar to "Well, I see we're about halfway through the deck. To show that this isn't a trick [volunteer 1] and I have pre-arranged, I'll move on to [volunteer 2].

8

Repeat step six using the red cards, volunteer two, and the bottom row of aces.

9

At this point, you have all the black cards on the top row covering both the black and red aces, and all the red cards on the bottom row covering both the red and black aces. The cards in the left hand column match the ace colors, while those in the right hand column do not.

10

Pick up the two piles in the left hand column, and pass each one to the volunteer who "filled" the pile. Instruct them to verify that the color is correct, and to share with each other so that they can both see.

11

While they are examining the cards from the left column, pick up the top right pile and lay it on top of the bottom pile.

12

Pick up the remaining pile. At this point, your pile consists of red cards (face down,) black ace (face up,) black cards (face down) and red ace (face up.) Move the red ace from the bottom of the pile to the top, and split the pile apart. Now, repeat step 10 -- the colors are now correct.

Community Q&A

Tips

Because you have not prearranged the deck, you need to "skip around" your fan hand to select the black cards. This will seem less odd if you also skip around for the red cards. You can use patter like "How about, ummmm..., this one?" to further mask this behavior.

Be sure to fully shuffle the deck before splitting it -- if you have a large imbalance of red and black cards, the trick will be ruined.

Step 12 is the only physical component of this trick, but it does require a little bit of practice. If you are good with your hands or familiar with physical card force tricks, try quickly pulling the top ace and bottom pile out, allowing the top pile to fall on the bottom ace.

Warnings

Obviously, the trick could be performed with a full deck; the problem is that when people get tired of choosing, you run the risk of them just saying "black, black, black" because they no longer have patience for your "psychic" schtick. If you wish to use a full deck, use two groups of volunteers and rotate among people in the group.

Until you are used to performing the prestidigitation in step 12, it's easier to do this trick just for your two volunteers. They have plenty to distract them while you are performing the trick -- but a passive audience will be more critical.

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wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has also been viewed 9,953 times.